Book cover commission for a Sci - Fi novel titled 'Fireflies and Cosmos: Interstellar Spring Book 1' by J. Darris Mitchell.
Synopsis:
The Institute seeded the 51 Worlds because they were devoid of life, or so they say. It's Captain Catalina Solaris Xao Mondragon's job to make sure the life they sent is feeding man, not eating him.
Mankind has always looked to the stars hoping to find intelligent life to save ourselves from pollution and war or even simpler lifeforms to inspire us to change. We found nothing. No insects, no plants, no bacteria. Nothing.
A century ago, with the Earth teetering on the brink of complete environmental degradation, the Institute for Organic Expansion used every resource available to launch 51 automated vessels equipped with FTL Bubbledrive engines and loaded with spores, seeds and eggs to the empty earth-like planets in hopes of giving mankind somewhere to go once Earth was used up. The Seedpods worked, mostly. After a century, most of the planets have life, though people have only managed to build enough Bubbledrives to colonize a dozen of the closest worlds. The Interstellar Ecologists work for the Institute to stabilize these new planetary ecosystems, and expand mankind’s reach into the stars.
Catalina Solaris Xao Mondragon is the greatest Captain the Institute has, but if she is to continue to uphold the Charter on the 51 Seeded Worlds and provide colonists with air, water, and farms or fish she'll need to replace her entomologist with someone who can identify and eradicate whatever the horrible insects from Epsilon-V that ate her last one. But the only bug-guy Catalina knows who is skilled enough to work on the Institute’s finest Organic Ship, The Artemis, is her ex-boyfriend, and he has the infuriating habit of falling in love and seducing a different woman every time he goes to another Seeded World.
If Catalina hopes to figure out what the hell the creatures were that devoured her last entomologist, Roman Jupiter is her best bet, and surely a few bruised feelings are worth a planet? Catalina thinks it is worth the risk, even if her crew of interstellar ecologists have other feelings about Jupiter and his lousy poetry.
Interstellar Spring is a humorous series about interstellar love, be it for the brave people who try to do what they believe in, or the wondrous flora and fauna who really run the world around us.
Mankind has always looked to the stars hoping to find intelligent life to save ourselves from pollution and war or even simpler lifeforms to inspire us to change. We found nothing. No insects, no plants, no bacteria. Nothing.
A century ago, with the Earth teetering on the brink of complete environmental degradation, the Institute for Organic Expansion used every resource available to launch 51 automated vessels equipped with FTL Bubbledrive engines and loaded with spores, seeds and eggs to the empty earth-like planets in hopes of giving mankind somewhere to go once Earth was used up. The Seedpods worked, mostly. After a century, most of the planets have life, though people have only managed to build enough Bubbledrives to colonize a dozen of the closest worlds. The Interstellar Ecologists work for the Institute to stabilize these new planetary ecosystems, and expand mankind’s reach into the stars.
Catalina Solaris Xao Mondragon is the greatest Captain the Institute has, but if she is to continue to uphold the Charter on the 51 Seeded Worlds and provide colonists with air, water, and farms or fish she'll need to replace her entomologist with someone who can identify and eradicate whatever the horrible insects from Epsilon-V that ate her last one. But the only bug-guy Catalina knows who is skilled enough to work on the Institute’s finest Organic Ship, The Artemis, is her ex-boyfriend, and he has the infuriating habit of falling in love and seducing a different woman every time he goes to another Seeded World.
If Catalina hopes to figure out what the hell the creatures were that devoured her last entomologist, Roman Jupiter is her best bet, and surely a few bruised feelings are worth a planet? Catalina thinks it is worth the risk, even if her crew of interstellar ecologists have other feelings about Jupiter and his lousy poetry.
Interstellar Spring is a humorous series about interstellar love, be it for the brave people who try to do what they believe in, or the wondrous flora and fauna who really run the world around us.
Available here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fireflies-Cosmos-Interstellar-Spring-Book-ebook/dp/B06Y2NHJRP/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1494249732&sr=8-2&keywords=interstellar+springs
Final Cover Design
Initial Mock Up
